Top 10 2016
Top 10 2016
Well then 2016. Not the best year on record for musicians, but a cracking year for music, of which a bit more later. So without any more blether:
Film of the year:
Started with Hateful 8, some excellent scifi including the fantastic Arrival and Rogue One, on the arthouse side we had Neon Demon, High Rise and Tale of Tales. On the superhero side we had the excellent Deadpool and Dr Strange (the less said about the DCEU the better) and even the Harry Potter franchise came good with Fantastic Beasts. I think I’m going to have to give it to Hateful 8 as a gleeful piece of Grand Guignol western that may be Tarantino’s best film. But it’s close.
Gig of the year:
Savages at the Roundhouse. OMD at the Albert Hall. Grimes at the Birmingham O2. Underworld, Jean Michel Jarre and Lonelady at Blue Dot. Gary Numan at the Oxford O2 (brilliant gig although a terrifyingly bad venue). Holy Fuck at Village Underground. Tomaga at Audioscope. In the end though the standout was the insane Death Grips gig at the Roundhouse. An hour and a half non stop of full on intensity. I am still at a loss as to how the drummer didn’t die.
edit: Oh shit I forgot Grimes at the Birmingham O2 whihc was also amazing. Death Grips still win on sheer insanity value though. /edit
EP of the year:
So after thinking about this it’s going to go to Kone, for the “Sketches of a Kone” EP. Best band in Oxford right now. Here’s HYKO.
Disappointment of the year:
Leaving out the fact that the Chromatics album STILL has not appeared in spite of a string of teaser tracks, videos and cryptic pronouncements from the label….no, I can’t have that every year. FEWS then, whose “Means” LP was….OK. Just OK. Where is the brilliance of the singles? Can they seriously only have three good songs, but those songs to be that good? Which leads us neatly into
Single of the year:
Is, of course, one of those Chromatics teaser tracks: the title track in fact from the aforementioned as-yet-non-existent album. It’s amazing though.
Which brings us to the main event, and the elephant in the room that is Blackstar. It’s really quite difficult for me to assess this one. If “The Next Day” was a farewell to old Bowie, “Blackstar” at first seemed like a hello to a new chapter. Then everything changed. I’m still having trouble getting to grips with it to be honest.
However.
In some sense there is no point in putting in Blackstar. Everyone who’s likely to read this has heard it and will have an opinion on it. So precisely because it is the elephant in the room, I’m not putting it in the list. It is going into the itunes playlist though. What follows is therefore the Best Records Of The Year that weren’t by David Bowie. But first this:
The ten that didn’t get in. Let’s face it in a lot of years these would have been top 10. That’s how good 2016 was. Which is why I've posted a top 20.
20. TOMAGA - The Shape Of The Dance. I had never heard of this band and let’s face it, percussion led improv does not sound promising, but they were the highlight of this year’s Audioscope. Here’s some film of them live, because amazing though it is the album doesn’t quite capture it.
19. Mendoza and Griffiths - The Shadow. Local band alert! Plus they are both friends. I may be a little biased. The electro/hip hop edge of Tiger Mendoza works beautifully with Dave’s vocal and guitar.
18. Christian Fitness - This Taco Is Not Correct. Future of the Left offshoot releases album that is better than the Future of the Left album. Almost made the top 10. No video so here’s a taster on Bandcamp:
https://christianfitness.bandcamp.com/track/reggie-has-asbestos-training
17. Right Hand Left Hand - Right Hand Left Hand. Another association with FOTL as we hadn’t heard of them before seeing them in support at the Electric Ballroom. We ended up buying the album. Amazing what two guys and a loop pedal can do.
16. Beyonce - Lemonade. Another that almost made top 10 but a couple of missteps for me (notably the weird pro-gun country number “Daddy Lessons”) keep it out. If everything had been as good as “Formation” it would have been top 5.
15. Cavern of Anti Matter - Void Beats/Invocation Trex. Do you like Stereolab? Do you like Krautrock? Of course you do. You will probably like this then, which features Tim Gaines out of Stereolab playing krautrock.
14. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool. Radiohead now seem to be making a good album every second release. Hail to the Thief - a bit rubbish. In Rainbows - great. King of Limbs - a bit rubbish. Which makes this one of the good ones. You’ve heard this before but here you go anyway.
13. Eagulls - Ullages. A change of pace here, going for a sparser, more Cure-like sound. Would have been higher but for their to me slightly inexplicable decision to do half the songs in 3/4 time. Or sometimes 6/8 or 12/8. Anyways this is great.
12. Santigold - 99c. I love Santigold. Another one that would have been higher but for a couple of missteps, like the bloody awful single “Who Be Lovin Me”. This isn’t that. This is "Outside The War" which is brilliant:
11. Not Waving - Animals. Minimal experimentalism from the Diagonal label. See also Powell. Love this.
So to the top 10:
10. Underworld - Barbara, Barbara, We Face A Shining Future. The 90s band revival continues with this comeback album from Underworld. I find myself listening to this more and more, even the more relaxed numbers that I wasn’t sure about first time round. The bangers are fantastic, notably the towering “If Rah”. Luna Luna Luna.
9. Powell - Sport. More glitchy minimalism. Liking this more each time I hear it. I’m going to include the single “Insomniac/Should’ve been a Drummer” as an excuse to play the video featuring a hilarious email exchange with Steve Albini. Big up Steve.
8. PC Music Volume 2. More hipster bobbins. But I like it so I don’t care.
7. Pet Shop Boys - Super. Another band comeback. I think it’s as good as any of their imperial phase albums. Yes yes yes yes.
6. Savages - Adore Life. This has really grown on me over the year. On first hearing less sparse and more rocky than their first album it nonetheless seems to have found a permanent space on my playlists.
5. MSTRKRFT - Operator. Well now. After the slightly generic EDM “fist of God” they’ve gone off and had a long think. The result is this, mostly produced via analog modular gear and hardware step sequencers and sounding raw as fuck and fresh as you like. Highlight is the metalcore crossover “Go On Without Me” but that seems to have no decent quality videos so instead here’s other highlight “Party Line”.
4. Wrangler - White Glue. It’s getting harder to figure out which ones are better now but anyway here’s Wrangler’s new release, if it sounds a bit Cabaret Voltaire-ish it’s because the band contains actual Stephen Mallinder. So they’re allowed. Best of luck finding any videos though.
3. Holy Fuck - Congrats. Another comeback - they’ve been off, decided to go with vocals, come back, maybe it’s the five year absence but they’ve never sounded so vital.
2. Factory Floor - 2525. To quote a friend on Facebook completely out of context “Acid techno. Nice One!” but there’s more to it than that. Minimal synth pulses, ever shifting percussion rhythms, you can listen to an 8 minute track and never get bored. Music lesson for 2016 - never underestimate the power of doing one thing for a long time. Here’s “Dial Me In”:
1. Cliff Martinez and others - Neon Demon OST. In the end there can be only one and this gorgeous soundtrack to one of my favourite films of the year is it. Getting it on beautiful transparent blue and green vinyl didn’t harm its case either. Again, however, best of luck finding a legit video. Most of the soundtrack is up here and if you want a highlight I would pick the theme starting at 22.47 “Jesse Sneaks Into Her Room”.
If this video gets taken down I guess you’ll just have to go and buy it. Trust me it’s amazing.
Well then 2016. Not the best year on record for musicians, but a cracking year for music, of which a bit more later. So without any more blether:
Film of the year:
Started with Hateful 8, some excellent scifi including the fantastic Arrival and Rogue One, on the arthouse side we had Neon Demon, High Rise and Tale of Tales. On the superhero side we had the excellent Deadpool and Dr Strange (the less said about the DCEU the better) and even the Harry Potter franchise came good with Fantastic Beasts. I think I’m going to have to give it to Hateful 8 as a gleeful piece of Grand Guignol western that may be Tarantino’s best film. But it’s close.
Gig of the year:
Savages at the Roundhouse. OMD at the Albert Hall. Grimes at the Birmingham O2. Underworld, Jean Michel Jarre and Lonelady at Blue Dot. Gary Numan at the Oxford O2 (brilliant gig although a terrifyingly bad venue). Holy Fuck at Village Underground. Tomaga at Audioscope. In the end though the standout was the insane Death Grips gig at the Roundhouse. An hour and a half non stop of full on intensity. I am still at a loss as to how the drummer didn’t die.
edit: Oh shit I forgot Grimes at the Birmingham O2 whihc was also amazing. Death Grips still win on sheer insanity value though. /edit
EP of the year:
So after thinking about this it’s going to go to Kone, for the “Sketches of a Kone” EP. Best band in Oxford right now. Here’s HYKO.
Click to viewDisappointment of the year:
Leaving out the fact that the Chromatics album STILL has not appeared in spite of a string of teaser tracks, videos and cryptic pronouncements from the label….no, I can’t have that every year. FEWS then, whose “Means” LP was….OK. Just OK. Where is the brilliance of the singles? Can they seriously only have three good songs, but those songs to be that good? Which leads us neatly into
Single of the year:
Is, of course, one of those Chromatics teaser tracks: the title track in fact from the aforementioned as-yet-non-existent album. It’s amazing though.
Which brings us to the main event, and the elephant in the room that is Blackstar. It’s really quite difficult for me to assess this one. If “The Next Day” was a farewell to old Bowie, “Blackstar” at first seemed like a hello to a new chapter. Then everything changed. I’m still having trouble getting to grips with it to be honest.
However.
In some sense there is no point in putting in Blackstar. Everyone who’s likely to read this has heard it and will have an opinion on it. So precisely because it is the elephant in the room, I’m not putting it in the list. It is going into the itunes playlist though. What follows is therefore the Best Records Of The Year that weren’t by David Bowie. But first this:
The ten that didn’t get in. Let’s face it in a lot of years these would have been top 10. That’s how good 2016 was. Which is why I've posted a top 20.
20. TOMAGA - The Shape Of The Dance. I had never heard of this band and let’s face it, percussion led improv does not sound promising, but they were the highlight of this year’s Audioscope. Here’s some film of them live, because amazing though it is the album doesn’t quite capture it.
19. Mendoza and Griffiths - The Shadow. Local band alert! Plus they are both friends. I may be a little biased. The electro/hip hop edge of Tiger Mendoza works beautifully with Dave’s vocal and guitar.
18. Christian Fitness - This Taco Is Not Correct. Future of the Left offshoot releases album that is better than the Future of the Left album. Almost made the top 10. No video so here’s a taster on Bandcamp:
https://christianfitness.bandcamp.com/track/reggie-has-asbestos-training
17. Right Hand Left Hand - Right Hand Left Hand. Another association with FOTL as we hadn’t heard of them before seeing them in support at the Electric Ballroom. We ended up buying the album. Amazing what two guys and a loop pedal can do.
16. Beyonce - Lemonade. Another that almost made top 10 but a couple of missteps for me (notably the weird pro-gun country number “Daddy Lessons”) keep it out. If everything had been as good as “Formation” it would have been top 5.
15. Cavern of Anti Matter - Void Beats/Invocation Trex. Do you like Stereolab? Do you like Krautrock? Of course you do. You will probably like this then, which features Tim Gaines out of Stereolab playing krautrock.
14. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool. Radiohead now seem to be making a good album every second release. Hail to the Thief - a bit rubbish. In Rainbows - great. King of Limbs - a bit rubbish. Which makes this one of the good ones. You’ve heard this before but here you go anyway.
13. Eagulls - Ullages. A change of pace here, going for a sparser, more Cure-like sound. Would have been higher but for their to me slightly inexplicable decision to do half the songs in 3/4 time. Or sometimes 6/8 or 12/8. Anyways this is great.
12. Santigold - 99c. I love Santigold. Another one that would have been higher but for a couple of missteps, like the bloody awful single “Who Be Lovin Me”. This isn’t that. This is "Outside The War" which is brilliant:
11. Not Waving - Animals. Minimal experimentalism from the Diagonal label. See also Powell. Love this.
So to the top 10:
10. Underworld - Barbara, Barbara, We Face A Shining Future. The 90s band revival continues with this comeback album from Underworld. I find myself listening to this more and more, even the more relaxed numbers that I wasn’t sure about first time round. The bangers are fantastic, notably the towering “If Rah”. Luna Luna Luna.
9. Powell - Sport. More glitchy minimalism. Liking this more each time I hear it. I’m going to include the single “Insomniac/Should’ve been a Drummer” as an excuse to play the video featuring a hilarious email exchange with Steve Albini. Big up Steve.
8. PC Music Volume 2. More hipster bobbins. But I like it so I don’t care.
7. Pet Shop Boys - Super. Another band comeback. I think it’s as good as any of their imperial phase albums. Yes yes yes yes.
6. Savages - Adore Life. This has really grown on me over the year. On first hearing less sparse and more rocky than their first album it nonetheless seems to have found a permanent space on my playlists.
5. MSTRKRFT - Operator. Well now. After the slightly generic EDM “fist of God” they’ve gone off and had a long think. The result is this, mostly produced via analog modular gear and hardware step sequencers and sounding raw as fuck and fresh as you like. Highlight is the metalcore crossover “Go On Without Me” but that seems to have no decent quality videos so instead here’s other highlight “Party Line”.
4. Wrangler - White Glue. It’s getting harder to figure out which ones are better now but anyway here’s Wrangler’s new release, if it sounds a bit Cabaret Voltaire-ish it’s because the band contains actual Stephen Mallinder. So they’re allowed. Best of luck finding any videos though.
3. Holy Fuck - Congrats. Another comeback - they’ve been off, decided to go with vocals, come back, maybe it’s the five year absence but they’ve never sounded so vital.
2. Factory Floor - 2525. To quote a friend on Facebook completely out of context “Acid techno. Nice One!” but there’s more to it than that. Minimal synth pulses, ever shifting percussion rhythms, you can listen to an 8 minute track and never get bored. Music lesson for 2016 - never underestimate the power of doing one thing for a long time. Here’s “Dial Me In”:
1. Cliff Martinez and others - Neon Demon OST. In the end there can be only one and this gorgeous soundtrack to one of my favourite films of the year is it. Getting it on beautiful transparent blue and green vinyl didn’t harm its case either. Again, however, best of luck finding a legit video. Most of the soundtrack is up here and if you want a highlight I would pick the theme starting at 22.47 “Jesse Sneaks Into Her Room”.
If this video gets taken down I guess you’ll just have to go and buy it. Trust me it’s amazing.